yes honesty. is there a problem? the secretary of defense says it it's better for the dong repeal don't ask, don't tell than wait for the courts to declare it unconstitutional. it would make for a smoother transition. under article i of the constitution congress has the constitutional right to raise an army. its congress that has the right and the duty to end, don't ask, don't tell. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. right now it's time for "the ed show" with ed schultz. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show." tonight, from minneapolis, these stories are hitting my hot buttons and on the table at this hour. rush limbaugh ought to be fired for what he just said after labeling democratic leadership a bunch of white racists. he said jim clyburn should be driving ms. nancy around instead of going to the back of the bus. my commentary plus response from reverend al sharpton and congresswoman sheila jackson-lee in just a moment.

darrell issa he better embrace himself he's about to reach his match. a powerful democrat is stepping forward to throw down the gauntlet. i'll tell you who it is in tonight's "battleground" story. i tell you what, george w. bush he's had one hell of a week, hasn't he? incriminated himself on national television. let hannity ride shotgun and show no remorse for making dangerous decisions. the cia agent who was outed by shooter, her husband will respond in "the playbook." but this is the story that has me fired up tonight. rush limbaugh is proving, once again, he's nothing but a flat-out racist. this time he's attacking the highest-ranking african-american in congress. limbaugh felt the need to make the leadership contest between congressman steny hoyer and congressman jim clyburn, make it about race. >> so there you have it. all hell breaking loose in the democratic party because now black and brown people after tonight -- tonight, we're on the inside. we want to get in there.

the white racist leadership of the democrat party trying to ace out clyburn. clyburn has had power but they want to take it away from him. >> well, the drugster, as always, doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. the contest between clyburn and hoyer is an inside the belt way story, at best. but rush, of course, wants to use anything he can to make the democrats look very evil. the drugster sunk even lower when he said this about jim clyburn. >> clyburn's worried about not having a car. clyburn's worried about not having the perk of big office, driver, so forth. the way this can all be worked out, clyburn's new position driving ms. nancy. he gets to keep the car. he gets to go everywhere she goes. parties and everything else. he was not in the back of the bus. he was in the driver's seat and

she's in the back of the car being chauffeured. solved problem. >> any fair-mind american knows that this is no slip of the tongue. limbaugh posted this "driving miss nancy" image of clyburn and pelosi on his website hours after he called the democrats racist. now rush loves to attack where he's weak. he's done it for years. he has a long history of racially charged comments but he wants his followers to think that the democrats are real racist. the election of the first black american president has not racially united this country and in many ways, it has done the opposite. conservatives like limbaugh have double downed with rationally charged language, and at same time they've also played the reverse racism game on america. this is what limbaugh said after our first hispanic supreme court justice. >> here you have a racist. you might -- you might want to

soften that. you might want to say a reverse racist and the libs of course say the minority's can't be racist because they don't have the party to implement their racism. well, those days are gone. reverse racist have the -- and now he's appointed one. >> limbaugh isn't the only hate merchant who pushed this garbage. hannity went on for days about reverse racism when the naacp called the tea party out. glenn beck, of course, will never live this one down. >> this president, i think, has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people or the white culture. i don't know what it is. this guy is, i believe, a racist. >> limbaugh, hannity and beck are the three biggest names in conservative talk radio in it country. their brand of racist hate is really what sells on talk radio. it's not entertaining.

conservative radio ownership, never seems to hold these talkers accountable, do they? they just throw it out there. and it is amazing what it sounds like when you bite them all together. is there is an agenda? yeah, it's black and white. they have something against black people. they have something against this president. and they have something against the democratic party for its all-encompassing platform and its position. the number to dial is 1-877-ed-msnbc. get your cell phones out, i want to know what you think. tonight's text survey question is, do you agree with rush limbaugh's remark that the democratic party leaders are white racists? text "a" for yes and text "b" for no to 622639. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. joining me now is reverend al sharpton, the president of the national action network. reverend, good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> i -- i have come to the conclusion in this business that

limbaugh is so big and his company is so jaded in the way they think, he can say anything, anytime, any way and get away with it. he's too big. what are your thoughts on that? >> i think that he has certainly intimidated everyone into thinking that. what is interesting to me and i think that you were right on target, as always, ed, is if his logic is that the democrats in the congress are racist to have an election between hoyer and clyburn, and i certainly think that clyburn should -- based on what he's done on merit -- not just because he's black should remain there, but if that makes them racist and then how does limbaugh explain how he and others are try to dump the chairman of the republican party, michael steele? i mean, he should then bring that logic to say that maybe he and the republicans that are dumping the black chairman who just led their party to the biggest victory they had in decades does it make them

racist? i mean does one logic apply to the other? the other thing is for him to be the keynotre at all of these mainstream republican events, when he's talking about somebody driving miss nancy, clearly the race card inferring on driving miss daisy. why do people in mainstream republican america have him keynoting their events? it's not only talk radio, it's when he's the one that is the big keynoter of big republican events which is why the nfl and others couldn't allow him in sports. the antidefamation league is questioning glenn beck in some statements that he made that they deem very much offensive to jews, they're playing the divide in conquer card. we cannot allow them to divide us or conquer us and we must hold them to a consistent standard, ask him about michael steele. >> yeah. reverend, it seems that they have no boundaries and there's

never any ramifications for anything they say when it comes to racist comments, inflammatory comments. i mean these licenses for these radio stations are given out to operate in the public's interest. i mean that's what the license says. is this operating in the public's interest to allow somebody to go on the air, time and time again, and make racist comments and no ramification for it, whatsoever? i mean in is 2010. when are we going to get beyond this? >> no, i think that you're right, ed, not only should there be ramifications. people can say whatever they want but not on the air, not on federally regulated airwaves and not when those licenses are very difficult to get and should be upholding a standard that they mock the standard, they mock the licenses of this government gives rather know that the privilege to express yourself to the american public. >> reverend sharp torng great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time so much. as always. reverend al sharpton here on "the ed show." joining me now is texas congresswoman sheila

jackson-lee, a member of the congressional black caucus. congresswoman, good to have you with us. leave it to the right-wing talkers of america to have competition between jim clyburn and steny hoyer enter into the arena of race and only one group of people that's done that and that's the conservative talkers of america. how do you feel about that? >> isn't that interesting, ed, frankly i believe that they're abusing the first amendment. they're the crowd that calls fire in a crowd of theater. i'm a strong supporter of right for anyone to express their beliefs and do it in a way that may be controversial or may be a belief that i don't agree with but i can assure you that nancy pelosi's a distinguished speaker. mr. hoyer's a distinguished majority leader, and mr. clyburn is a distinguished majority whip. they have worked together over the years and accomplished much. and in the course of our leadership, we have embraced people from all walks of life. hispanics and african-americans,

caucasians and asians, all find a home in the democratic caucus and in leadership. it is shameful, absolutely shameful for the laxity and the misuse of words to compare or to equate mr. clyburn's stellar service to driving miss daisy to equate the first woman speaker to driving miss daisy. it is insulting. we made history in 2006. we elected a very diverse caucus. that includes javier basara as vice president of the democratic caucus. john lawson, mr. van hollen. chairman of committees. the congressional black caucus has 17 subcommittee chairs and they will be ranking members. the hispanic caucus is very diverse. i take great issue in the abuse and the misinterpretation of a leadership fight and an election that respects both individuals who have garnered their support

from all sides of the caucus, both men have supports of african-americans, hispanics, and caucasian and asian. that's how diverse our caucus is. men and women. and so mr. limbaugh is entertainment but it's entertainment in which he will ultimately eat his own words. >> well, it's damaging to race relations in this country. that's what i think. how are we going to make any progress if there's somebody out on all of these radio stations across america who is allowed to basically get away with racist comments, never challenged on it, and it goes into the ears of impressionable people, low-information voters, who say, yeah, that's the way the democrats really are. i mean, i don't want to say, should there be a law against this, but where's the decency? >> ed, that's -- >> there isn't any. >> -- that's a very good question. as you well know the fairness doctrine exists no more. it was interpreted that that was

stifling the first amendment. it might be worthy of a debate again. because without the fairness doctrine, of course, there is a wide latitude of the use of language that is provoking provocative and insulting. you're right -- >> how about a decency doc -- how about a decency law that says you can't make racist comments on the air. >> well -- >> i mean there's right and there's wrong. we're afraid to say what's right and wrong anymore, what's decent and indecent. but we're never going to move the envelope forward in this country when it comes to race relations, intention in a melting pot in america if we're going to allow people to go on the air and say insightful things like this that is nothing but harmful. >> well, they're insightful and they're also den creating and insulting. you're insulting majority jim clyburn. and mr. hoyer the majority leader at this time would also view actions as insulting.

have they evidenced any racist tendency by the characterization of the debate and the race that is going to right now? you're insulting the first female speaker of the house who doesn't define herself as that, but defiance herself as a leader. well, you have a good point about decency. we were hoping that there would be a decency standard as an internal compass of all of those who have the privilege of using the airwaves of america paid for by the american taxpayers who happen to be enormously diverse. we come from all walks of life. to throw the race card by either way of challenging the president's birthright and where he was born or by suggesting that there is a racist action going on by the present race between two distinguished members who have garnered their support including the support of the congressional black caucus for mr. clyburn. it is absolutely ridiculous and it is unacceptable. what i would say to you is we have to be able to, if you will, ed, we have to be able to have the courage to be able to stand up for what is right and to

speak to the american people in tones that are respectful of them, the listener, as well as those that we're speaking about. there are too many who believe that beating up in a nasty ais the right way to go and the question that reverend sharpton asked what is the standard being used for mr. steele, then you should look in your own closet before you begin to assess the actions of a caucus that has shown itself to be nothing more than open-minded, diverse and embracing of all races, color creed, background, religion. >> no doubt. >> it's all in the democratic caucus. we're proud of the democratic caucus and, ed, i'll tell you this, we're proud of the work we're getting ready to do because we are not going to take a step backward on serving the american people. we're ready to roll up our sleeves, and by the way -- >> yes. >> -- we're not going to talk about raising the retirement age of 69. we've got a lot of work to do. >> congresswoman sheila jackson-lee, thank you for your time tonight on "the ed show." i appreciate it very much me ed

iappreciate being with you. >> you bet. coming up, rachel maddow took on jon stewart last night in the great sanity debate. she was spot on and he was dead serious. she'll join me live in tonight's "battleground" story. george w. bush is singing like a canary to sell his books. and now he needs to see his day in court. i'll go head-to-head with a lawyer who worked for him and we'll get rapid-fire response. plus, incoming congressman loves a hater, rupert murdoch's eating with enemy and "daily show" co-creator headlines club ed tonight. ♪ [ growls ] ♪ ♪ [ polar bear grunting ] [ growls ] [ male announcer ] introducing the 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all.

[ male announcer ] introducing the 100% electric nissan leaf. everyone has someone to go heart healthy for. who's your someone? campbell's healthy request can help. low cholesterol, zero grams trans fat, and a healthy level of sodium. it's amazing what soup can do. coming up on "the ed show" -- democrats are furious with the mixed messages the white house is sending on tax cuts. it sounds like they're about ready to help the rich get richer. mr. president, you need to get crystal clear on this issue. if you let the righties win on this one, i tell you what there's going to be hell to pay. politically.

former clinton secretary of labor robert reich will bring in the straight talk next. ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life.

welcome back to "the ed show" and thanks for watching tonight. democrats are furious over the administration's mixed messages on the bush tax cuts. the white house' denying a report, saying that they're caving in and going to give a tax cut to the rich. the president spoke out today in south korea. >> my number one priority is making sure that we make the middle-class tax cuts permanent. i continue to believe that extending permanently the upper income tax cuts would be a

mistake and that we can't afford it. and my hope is that somewhere in between there we can find some sort of solution. >> he is absolutely right. it would be a huge mistake and we cannot afford it. but he also added this. >> now this sounds to me like they're getting ready to cut a deal. mr. president, i think it's all very clear. due respect here, due respect, we cannot compromise on this one. liberals from this country don't want you to compromise on this one, and i think that when you get home you're going to be have to be crystal clear on this issue. this is all about leadership and there is a long history of letting the base down, don't budge on this one. joining me now is robert reich, former secretary of labor in the clinton administration. professor at uc-berkeley. here's also the author of "aftershock: the next economy in america's future."

mr. reich, good to have you with us tonight. what does it say about the president of the united states on foreign soil having to answer questions about tax policy in america? what do you make of that? >> well, ed it's good to be here. look, tax policy america around the world. is he going to take a firm stand? is he going to negotiate really weakness by offering compromises even before the negotiations begin. what kind of a president is this going to be for the next two years? the world wants to know. america wants to know. he's got to take an extremely firm stand right now. the rich, the people at the very top, they're the only ones who are doing well right now. everybody else is door poorly. everybody else needs and deserves a continuation of books -- of the bush tax cut but the people at the very top don't and it's going to blow a huge hole in the deficit. >> all right, this is the sound bite from the president, we fried to play a moment ago.

is this language strong enough? here it is. >> i'm not going to negotiate here in seoul. my job is to negotiate back in washington with republican and democratic leaders. >> the word "negotiate" makes a lot of liberals nervous because the righties have thrown down the gauntlet, drawn the line in the sand. what do you think the play is? >> well, it's not just liberals and progressives, ed. i think it's independents, it's all of america want to know, how much backbone our president has about issues that are really important to average working people. and this one is. again, the president -- what the president needs to do, even if he feels that he needs to offer a little bit of an olive branch to recognize the fact that republicans have to have -- made a clean sweep of the next congress, what he could do and probably what he should do is say, okay, instead of $250,000 being the limit for getting the bush tax cut extension, i'll raise it to $500,000. just let the top 1% of americans

who are taking home twloms 5% of all income this year, they should not get it. everybody else, 99% will get it and should get it. and that smokes out the republicans, ed. it enables the republicans -- it puts them at a terrible position by saying, the top 1%, i'm not going to give them a tax cut. the president is saying in effect, look, the deficit is too important. republicans would, in effect, have to say, we are protecting our patrons, the top 1%, over 500,000 dpz a year, and we don't care about the budget deficit. that would smoke them out. >> it certainly would. it's something the president needs to do and be very clear on it while he does it. mr. reich, good to have you with us tonight. thanks for your time. >> thanks, ed. coming up, incoming republican congressman alan west can't stop praising a radical shock jock who says we should hang illegal immigrants? i'm throwing this radioactive pair right into the zone next. that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer.

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and in "psycho talk" tonight, congressman-elect alan west is standing firmly behind his racist ex-chief of staff. now west wanted to bring righty talker joyce kauffman to washington with him but her history of hate speech forced her to quit before she even started. but neither of them is backing down. west called in to kaufman's radio show and promised to continue their fight. >> you will continue to fight on

your battlefield and your voice there and i will fight them on the battlefield in washington, d.c., and i'm even more committed, even more focused on making sure that this liberal progressive socialist agenda, this left-wing vile, vicious, despicable machine that's out there is soundly brought to his knees. >> he followed up by showering kaufman with praise saying, quote, joyce kaufman is the most honorable, with the most impeccable integrity and character that i've ever met in my life. well, let me tell you about this honorable person. she said that she wants to hang illegal immigrants who commit crimes. she said immigrants bring disease with them to america and on the fourth of july she gave us this piece of psycho patriotism. >> i am convinced that the most important thing that the founding fathers did to ensure me of my first amendment rights

was they gave me a second amendment. [ applause ] and if balance don't work, bullets will. >> for allen west to think that person has integrity is wild "psycho talk." coming up, rachel maddow just landed an exclusive with jon stewart of "the daily show." he wasn't exactly fair with some of the things he said about the cable news game. he thinks different rules apply to him. we'll talk about it. the great rachel maddow will break it down for us coming up in the "battleground" story. and darrell issa's witch-hunt against the president is about to get a lot more interesting. a democratic hellraiser is stepping into the ring, and right along with him and you won't want to miss my commentary on this. plus, uncle rupert lands in the angels start second guessing where they tread. ♪ call 1-800-steemer

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welcome back to "the ed show." "battleground" story tonight, the great sanity debate. well, jon stewart's tried to separate himself from cable news shows he makes fun of every night. he went head-to-head with our rachel maddow last night and tried to distance himself from what we do. >> you're on the playing field and i'm in the stands yelling things. >> everybody sees you as the playing field too, i think. >> well that may be but here's -- >> yeah. >> and that's, again back to the point of the rally. that rally i could have gotten on the field. and people got mad that i didn't. but that was the point. roger ebert doesn't make movies. so to say well, roger, you you're in the game. no he was not he's not making movies. he's sitting in the seat going, this movie sucks. that's me. >> you know, respectfully, i think jon stewart's off base on this one. if you get the president of the united states to go on your show, you're on the playing

field. jon stewart puts himself in the game every night. and he took it a step further with his rally down in washington in the way it was perceived. now, i'm not quite sure i get all of this lofty analysis that he gives about cable news and whether or not it affects the dialogue in this country. the bottom line is you're not relevant in this business unless people watch what you do,ane jon stewart can criticize us but millions of people flock to the cable news networks every day. people want straighttalk, passion and a clear belief system in my opinion, something that they can relate to. they can flip on cable news get unvarnished truth or whatever they want to believe. commentary on the side and information and entertainment. so with that, let's go to rachel maddow, who is the fantastic host and i'm one of her biggest fans, no question about it. rachel, great to have you with us tonight. thanks for being on "the ed show." >> ed, it's great to be here, thanks. >> do you accept this

conversation about people of his -- in his position being on a different playing field? how did you take that. >> you know i think -- i think it's one of the most interesting things that we got to. because what's clear and he elaborated this a flot a lot of very interesting details is that he does not see himself as having come from the same place that we all come from. you and i both come from the radio talk world. a lot of other people in in business come from the straight news journalism world. he sees himself as coming out of the comedic tradition and his forbearers sort being people like jerry seinfeld. but even though as he sees himself coming from there and us not being -- the fact whether he does for a living does mean that people see him and us sort of along the same plain. they see his time commentary as having as much news value in some cases as what happens here on cable news. i'm not sure that he wants that but i do think that it's how he functions in the country. >> here is mr. stewart last

night. talking about fox, saying that they're not partisan. here it is. >> i do think that there's a difference between having a point of view and being a partisan. >> uh-huh. >> i think -- >> i agree with that. >> i am a liberal. it doesn't mean that i think of democrats as being on my team. >> that's not partisan either. they're really not. >> but they never criticized george w. bush for anything even when he was doing things that were sort of not conservative. >> yeah. >> they never criticized him. >> but they're -- but that's -- they are ideological but they're not -- i don't know that they're partisan. >> do we need to get the definition of partisan for cable news? what do you think? >> it is -- it's -- you can slate hairs on this and i think that he's trying to make a very nuanced point. i think what he was trying to get at was that they have an ideological commitment to conservatism and sometimes that causes them to do things that aren't necessarily in the base-level interest of the republican party. he didn't make this argument but i can imagine him making that argument. i think what he meant was about

supporting people like sharron angle. sharron angle's candidacy ultimately was bad for the republican party's immediate needs. because she lost that race and a more sane rin think would have held onto it and so i think that he's actually trying to say they're not just supporting republicans, they're supporting a very specific type of republican. but that's -- i mean that's one that definitely deserves further debate. >> you know, rachel, we can take a wide swath here on cable talk shows in america. we're not the network "nightly news," you'll see it -- a totally different product on all of the network and yet people come and watch what we do. what's your philosophy? why do people watch cable shows in your opinion. >> i think to try to make sense of the world. i think that there's a lot of different places that you can get plain, factual information in the world. we can get it -- you know, even just on the way to work you can pick up a newspaper, you can -- you can watch dayside cable television which is generally pretty partisan-free, pretty opinion-free. you can get news alerts on your

cell phone at this point. you can get it while move, right? a lot of different way fosget information. i think that people come to cable because they want to figure out how to connect the desperate dots. date at they're able to get about the world and try to make some sense of what's going on in the world and that does take analysis. >> rachel maddow with us tonight here on "the ed show." i appreciate your time. i than you're awfully busy and we're look forward to seeing you here tonight. >> i really appreciate. >> you bet. be sure to tune into "the rachel maddow" show tonight. rush limbaugh has unleashed his trademark racism on the highest-ranking african-american in congress. house majority whip jim clyburn. and george w. bush admits he personally authorized the use of waterboarding prompting renewed call for a criminal investigation. with us tonight xm satellite's black eagle, joe madison, one of the most listened to african-american radio talk show hosts in america.

and also republican strategist ron christie, a former special assistant to george w. bush and dick cheney. and the author of the new book "acting white: the curious history of a racial slur." gentlemen, rush limbaugh. i want to let you go first, joe, what did you make of the comments that we played earlier in the program tonight? >> racially insulting. and you heard him. i heard them. my audience was so upset they even talked about boycotting disney because i guess is affiliation with abc. look you know, to sit up there and to paint this image of a morgan freeman driving miss daisy, you took a man, jim clyburn who won, is extremely honorable, one of the most progressive legislators, herein's a guy who supported -- went against bill clinton when it came to the china trade act because of human rights violations and environmental violations.

he stuck with unions. he spoken out for working men and women. he was the third most powerful individual and you reduced him in a matter of 45 seconds to a chauffeur. it was racist. call it what it is and limbaugh has been doing this ever since he's been doing talk radio and why he gets away with it, i don't know. >> he does get away with it. ron christie, your thoughts. >> one of those instances that i was actually listening to the rush limbaugh show and i'm sure you guys didn't hear the entire thing before the segment, during the segment and after. in the segment actually referred to a segment, not on a network that we don't know. it was on msnbc where they were talking to former congressman martin frost. and frost said that the leadership battle that's going on in the house of representatives right now frankly has been reduced to perks, and whether or not clyburn, if he is forced from his leadership position, will have to give up his driver, his security detail and of course the car.

and limbaugh -- >> he referred to her as miss nancy, ron. come on. >> wait a second, ed. i will not let you guys try to denigrate him here. >> nobody's denigrating you and you're not calling the rules on this show. wait a minute. >> i'm not calling the rules. i actually listened to the entire segment, ed. i dare say that you didn't listen to the whole thing. >> how do you know they didn't. >> did you, ed? >> ron christie, you do this every time when we challenge you on this program. now asking you to be a gentleman about there. >> as always i will. >> he referred to her as miss nancy. he talked about the back of the bus. now how do you defend that? he put this on his website. stop parselling out the racism this guy throws out and throw your ideology out the window and tell us how you feel. >> ron -- >> ed, and i would say the same thing to you i don't like the picture that's on the screen at all. i don't. >> oh god. >> i actually listened to the entire segment which i said why i asked you whether you heard it from start to finish. let me say this if you want to talk about throwing ideology out and racism, it's frankly ironic

that the president of the united states, when he was talking to a group of hispanics said that if the republicans want to be in the car of the nation and move forward -- >> i'm not talking about that. >> -- they'd have to be in the back of the car. ed, you said -- >> ron, we are not talking about rush limbaugh. we're talking about rush limbaugh and how he wheels his racism -- >> i absolutely -- >> from time to time and -- how do you support that. >> as a gentleman from one gentleman to two others, i would say to you for having heard the entire segment in its context, he was making an al gorical reference that the whip, the current majority whip of the united states of the house of representatives, if he was being pushed out of his leadership position, it was a former democratic member of congress saying that this was an issue about perks of a car, a driver, and a security detail. my point to you is if you listen to it from the start to the finish, he was not being racist in his intent. >> can i jump in here. >> he was not being raciist in his intent in my opinion.

>> not being racist, wow. >> i don't try to get angry but, ron, let me tell you something, he didn't talk about nancy pelosi wanting the perks. he didn't talk about steny hoyer wanting the perks. he didn't talk about boehner wanting the perks. they're the same darn position, but yet when it came to an african-american, all of a sudden he wants the perks. now i'm going to tell you something, ron, i love you, i respect you. but quit being on an apologist. this was a racist comment. he reduced this man and his position and all he's done to a chauffeur. that is racist. >> my affection goes back to -- >> and i don't have anything else to say. that's it. >> let me finish my point. you're double talking. >> equally the same but -- >> you're double talking. >> rush was saying that -- >> oh rush was -- insulted sometime this was a deal that related to the perks. not rush. >> oh, ron. >> that's what he said. >> i swear. i wish that i was on satellite

radio because i got a real -- i got one of those whoopie's choice words to use and you're full of it. >> gentlemen, i only wished and, ed ichallenged you this from the outset. if you had heard the entire segment, rush was not trying to be a racist. there are too many people who are trying to play the race card. for more racist that the president of the united states says that the republicans should be in the back of the car of the nation when rosa parks was so brave with w her bravery of what she did and the first african-american president of the united states wants to call republicans -- worth ev sitting in the back. that is racist and no one has challenged the president on that and that's pathetic. >> it wasn't to be challenged. >> joe madison, ron christie, great to have you with us tonight. >> take case, gentlemen. >> thanks for being on, you bet. i want to make a quick point the last couple of nights here on "the ed show" we've talked about congressman darrell issa and his plan to investigate the obama administration when it comes -- when he becomes the chairman of the government reform and oversight commodity. now, according to some members of congress, issa is on a

witch-hunt. and i think the best counterpunch for the democrats is to make congressman dennis kucinich the ranking member on that commodity. folks, this could be a real crisis for this country. issa would have the power to bring any progress in this country, legislatively, to a complete stop, and really disfocus the country. so kucinich who is a hell-raiser, fighter and a strong left who won't let ricea get away with anything, like smearing people or coming up with phony charges, yes, democrats need to put dennis kucinich in the ranking position to make sure that they have the best counterpunch to a possibly dangerous and reckless chairman. you could go to my blog at we got ed.com and comment on this one tonight my website. coming up, i'm not done hammering w. and either is my next guest. sean penn just played his part in a movie about the outing of a cia agent, valerie plame. ambassador joe wilson sounds off on the lies and deception next

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and in my "playbook" tonight, president bush has been on a nonstop media campaign to push his memoir "decision points." bush admit heed authorized waterboarding to matt lauer and he told oprah it was saddam's fault the united states couldn't find wmds. bush glossed over how members his innercircle outed cia agent valerie plame that topic is the subject of a new movie "fair game" which is hitting theaters all across america this weekend. joe wilson says bush's book should be called "deception points." he joins us on "the ed show" now. ambassador wilson, good to have

you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. in the book, scooter libby is referred to by president bush in an interview as a loyal american. what's your response to that? >> well, you know scooter's a four-time convicted felon. on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. the prosecutor who convicted him on those charges said essentially that his unwillingness to be truthful to the grand jury or to prosecutors meant that he, the prosecutor, could not get to the bottom of the case. which involved the betrayal of the identity of a national security asset. so if those are mr. bush's types of loyal americans, then god help us. >> and how about the fact that the president says, it was the last and most emotional, personal decision of his

presidency on what to do about scooter libby. what's your take on that? >> well, when he commuted his scooter libby sentence, what he basically did at that time was take all the pressure off of mr. libby to actually tell the truth to the prosecutor before he went up to do jail time. that in my mind makes mr. bush an accessory after the fact to a conspiracy that could not be uncovered because of the obstruction of justice. so that was the fundamental decision for me. i wonder as i read the chapter on how agonizing this person's decision was whether it had much do with scooter and much more in fact do with his personal relationship with vice president cheney. as in, oh, i don't want to make dick cheney mad at me. >> a lead story in "the huffington post" this afternoon

was bush lifted material from adviser's books. does that surprise you at all? >> i'm not surprised at all. if you read the very brief section on the way the administration handled the outing of a covert officer, who happened to be my wife is pretty clear that there's nothing terribly original in the words or even in the phrasing of the paragraphs. >> and do you think that this movie will have an impact on the opinions of americans? what do you think? >> well, i hope with what people come away from the movie with is an understanding that if you wish for this republic to remain strong people have to be fair to stand up and accept their responsibilities as citizens to hold the government to account. it's one thing for you and people like you do it on the radio stations and whatnot but it's quite another thing for citizens to get off their couches and actually participate

in this great democracy of ours. >> joe, good to see you. >> encourage them to do that. >> yeah, absolutely. mr. ambassador, joe wilson, great to have you us tonight on "the ed show." some final pages in "the playbook" tonight jenn sterger the woman at the center of the brett favre sexting scandal finally broke her silence. she met with the nfl officials for 3 1/2 hours on thursday about the incident. sterger's agent said that they fully cooperated with the investigation. the nfl had no comment. and brett favre also declined to comment. but he did make some news in an interview on the nfl network. >> are you still thinking super bowl. >> ehh. >> ehh. >> we have to get in small steps right now. >> are you coming back in 2011? >> no. >> brett, with everything going on, i still don't believe you. i think that you've got another year in you, and rupert murdoch

better get ready -- better get the booze ready for media members and founder and five guests will break bread with the husband of nucor. they want a charity offer that paints $86,000 for the lunch date. no word yet on when it's going to happen. coming up, w. went from the oval office to riding around in a pickup truck with slant head. oh gosh that's exciting. at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin. that first job launched my career. since i've been with the company, i've been promoted ten times over the span of 11 years. today, i'm a divisional learning and development manager. we can actually help people develop in their own careers. my job allows me to make a difference in the lives of almost 100,000 associates in the northeast. if you think about it, that's almost 8 times the size of my hometown. my name is nick and i work at walmart. ♪

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welcome back. well, it's friday it's time for "club ed" with "daily show" co-creator, lizz winsted. >> hey, ed. >> you bet. the bush book tour, take it away, what you are seeing? >> well i mean it was pretty amazing, the hard-hitting questions that we saw but what i found interesting in the matt lauer interview is that he -- at first they were in a church and then they went to this weird room that felt like an interrogation room and so the irony of him talking about waterboarding in this room was not lost on me. but more importantly was the hannity interview. do you know that show it's called "bait car"? it's on -- it's on trutv. that's what tlokd like. they were this, this car with the weird dashcam on them about and then bush is like, well,

that's where i fish and that's where i clean the brush and here's how the land goes and i had a hard job as president. nothing's much has changed. look at that. when you see the camera the fish they look like the worst the most boring thugs in the history of the show "bait car." useless. >> i was waiting -- i was waiting for -- well you know, karen hughes' coming over we're going to work on some things. >> that's right, karen's coming over we're going to watch some football. brett favre. clean brush you know? i hated being president. i just wanted to be retired anyway so here i am. >> all right. alaska write-in ballots other than what in the heck is going on with fla. >> dude, it's unending and you know, joe miller is -- has been you know lording over them insanely and you know if the people of alas ca were silly enough to vote for lisa murkowski you would think that they at least know how to spell it instead they voted for the big lobowski. my dream is that there is going to be a second runoff between lisa murkowski and monica lewinsky. i think that's how screwed up this thing is going to get.